Living Artfully

Yellow boat

2011-06-08T15:04:00.000-07:00

Another attempt at watercolor canvas. Looks better in real life. Oddly sized to fit in a certain spot, 16 1/2 by 8 1/2.

More portrait practice

2011-05-20T15:52:00.000-07:00

Found my lost photos, for some reason Windows "hid" them when I rotated them. Anyhow, back to portrait practice. I'm trying to get the skin tone darker. I also had a big breakthrough on this one. I keep making her nose too long, that's why I can't get the likeness right. Will try again soon.

Watercolor canvas

2011-05-20T15:32:00.000-07:00

Long time between posts. Finished this about two weeks ago. The pictures a little blurry, I didn't use a tripod. Will have to try it again. I had a couple more to post but when I rotated them, they disappeared off my computer? I'll have to retake them.

Class finished

2010-12-16T07:47:00.000-08:00

We had our last class Tuesday. I'm still not sure about the watercolor canvas but I do see where it could work better then paper. I have several sheets left so I will keep playing with it until I figure out if I do like it. But for now it's back to portrait practice. Here's all the watercolor canvas's I did in class and out. Still trying to figure out the camera issue, got a new to me one yesterday.

Class project

Started in class, I'm not a flower painter

Three I did at home, the first two are loose sheets, the third is mounted on board

And finally one on stretched watercolor canvas

One from class and the final version of seascape (maybe)

2010-12-03T10:13:00.000-08:00

We did a wet in wet background and then picked the flowers out. Marcia did a blue background with white flowers, very effective. I did green, blue background with spink flowers, not as effective. Anyhow worked it over, here's the results, might do more in class.

Tweaked the seascape some more. I' might consider this one done before I make it worse. Darkened the waves behind the cliff, lightened the horizon and played with the water in the foreground.

Watercolor canvas demo

2010-11-30T09:57:00.000-08:00

After drawing out my basic outlines, I put in the first wash of color on the water and the sky. Permanent rose and prussian blue.

Next i put in the distant mountains.

Third step was blocking in the closer shorelines. Prussian blue and burnt seinna for the second point, and then yellow ochre, burnt sienna and a touch of sepia for the closer shorelines and rocks.

Next I started working on the water. I scrubbed out the lighter areas and then dropped in the darker areas.Still prussian blue and permanent rose.

You can see the mountains need adjusting, the clouds need adjusting. I worked on those issues and dropped some more color in the closer shoreline.

This is where I've left off for now. I hope to have it finished by the end of the week. Today is class and hopefully we'll get the river painting done and start on something else. No class last week, snow day!

More portrait practice

2010-11-23T05:18:00.000-08:00

I hope this woman never see's this blog! At least it's starting to look more like her.

This is still on lower quality paper. The skin looks terribly overworked even though it shouldn't. I ordered some Fabriano and more watercolor canvas so the next one will be on better quality paper. Hopefully that will let the paint flow a littler better so it won't look so over worked. Face is proportioned better, mouth is a little off to the one side. Still much improved, I'm happy with the progress.

Watercolor canvas progress

2010-11-23T05:10:00.000-08:00

I don't think I will be going to Missoula today for painting class, blizzard conditions and lot's of people out there that don't know how to drive in snow conditions. If this happened 20 years ago I wouldn't hesitate about going to class. Now with so many transplants from warm weather states it's not safe to head out in the first big storm of the season. Just heard on the television, all schools in Missoula are closed, that settles that!
Here's where we left it after last Tuesday class after a little more tweaking. Marcia was going to show us how to us the air brush on it, but equipment failure put an end to that.

There is a weird reflection on this picture. I used the tripod but need to figure out how to change the lighting to get rid of the flash.

Back to a landscape

2010-11-16T08:43:00.000-08:00

Finished this one off yesterday. Still a little blurry even though I used a tripod. I think I'll try the other camera next time. As I look at it on the screen, I think I need to enlarge the palm tree and make it hang down and break the horizon line. This was from a photo I took in Puerto Armuelles, Panama, flowering fences.

Portrait practice

2010-11-12T13:31:00.000-08:00

Since I get bored with landscapes so quickly, I did a little portrait practice today. I did one on the watercolor canvas, already washed that off. Here's the first one,

I am not Charles Reid, I need to back off the funky color choices for now! And here's the third one, second one was the one that got washed off.

Class painting

2010-11-11T14:01:00.000-08:00

This is what we worked on in class. Everyone is doing the same picture, we received a black and white printout and pretty much painted along with Marcia. This one really is this pink, I got carried away with the rose. It is not finished, we will work more on it next Tuesday. Still a little blurry.

2010-11-11T13:57:00.000-08:00

I've touched up the sky, lightened the background mountain and adjusted some light areas. Not the best I've ever done but not bad for my first attempt with watercolor canvas.

Practice

2010-11-09T05:12:00.000-08:00

Played with the watercolor canvas yesterday. I tried part of one of the lessons from the Charles Reid DVD, painted upright and wetter and looser then the balloon painting. I think this will work with a looser style. Class today in the afternoon.

Introduction

2010-11-08T09:27:00.000-08:00

I recently turned fifty and thought to myself, so now what? We've shut the business down to almost nothing. no more fishing trips this year, no company this winter. I have time! Time to get back to my art work. For my birthday I bought "Charles Reid's 10 Lesson Course" on watercolors, lovely. Excellent DVD and I am learning ton's and remembering ton's! This is the style I think I want to work towards, so loose and colorful.

As another challenge to myself I've signed up for a class on watercolor canvas, taught by Marcia Bellowe. So different then working on paper. I'd never heard of the product until I saw it in the class catalog. It was the only painting class during daylight hours so I signed up. Now I need to figure out if I can bring that loose, colorful style to the watercolor canvas.

It is not as pink as it is showing up on here. Over all I'm pleased with it considering I haven't painted on a regular bases for the last 15 years.

Here's a closeup of what can happen with watercolor canvas.

It's a little blurry, more practice with the camera is needed. I had to fix the shape of the balloon, you can see where the paint lifted. Also I had some green on my hand and that transfered to the painting. I'll try to fix both issue's.